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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27018682">Hello Darkness</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBeckster/pseuds/TheBeckster'>TheBeckster</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Talking Without Speaking, Hearing Without Listening [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Angst, Bittersweet Ending, Character Deaths, Clone Trooper Inhibitor Chips (Star Wars), Dark, Female Anakin Skywalker, Gen, Genderbending, Hooo boy this is a dark one y'all, Infanticide, Male Padmé Amidala, Order 66, Rule 63, So Many Character Deaths, Things start out okay and then they stop, Violence, Violent Deaths, that should be a content warning in its own right</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 04:21:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,372</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27018682</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBeckster/pseuds/TheBeckster</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Anakin makes a decision to run away and keep her secret safe. For a while, things are going fine, and then everything goes horribly wrong. Palpatine issues Order 66.</p><p>-----<br/>I had a sad thought, and I made it worse, and worse, and WORSE. Check the tags. This is not a happy fic.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>CT-6116 | Kix &amp; Anakin Skywalker, CT-7567 | Rex &amp; Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi &amp; Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Talking Without Speaking, Hearing Without Listening [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/736284</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>63</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hello Darkness</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So eventually, I do actually plan on posting a happy alternative, fix-it AU to Wells of Silence. This is not that fic.<br/>This is the fic that came to me when I had a sad thought, and because I apparently enjoy making myself suffer, I made bad things worse and worse and worse.<br/>The sad thought was: Why did Anakin survive Order 66? Obviously because Palpatine wrote Anakin into the plan as the exception to the Kill All Jedi rule from the beginning. And to make it worse, I tossed it into the Wells universe.</p><p>Check the tags. Mind the tags. I was not nice in this fic. It does not have a happy ending. Bad things happen.</p><p>(This story has been eating my brain. I had to post it. Misery loves company and all that. Sorryyyyyy)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Anakin ran.</p><p>When her most dangerous secret was about to be exposed to the Jedi, she did the only thing she could think of. She ran away.</p><p>She had hidden the pregnancy thus far, but she knew that could only last for so long, and her time ran out abruptly when she dropped into a dead faint in the middle of the Temple. She woke up in the Halls of Healing with a blood sample already off for analysis. She didn’t wait around for the diagnosis. As soon as the healers weren’t paying attention to her, she slipped out of bed, out of the Temple.</p><p>She hadn’t told anyone about the baby, not Obi-Wan, not even Padme. It hurt her to hide this from her husband, but at this point it was too dangerous for him to know. She had to protect him and their child. She didn’t know what the Jedi would do if she stayed with them; probably nothing terrible, but she couldn’t shake the fear that they would separate her from her child. As for the military, well, she was already going AWOL; they would probably assume she had defected to the Separatists and was therefore guilty of treason. And the Separatists, their Sith-in-chief, she didn’t even want to think about what they might do to her if they found her so vulnerable. Anakin could take care of herself, but with her child’s life on the line, she didn’t want to take any risks.</p><p>So she ran away, from the Jedi, from the war, from everything.</p><p>And it worked for some time. She kept a low profile and kept an ear to the ground. Her absence was noted, there were even bounties placed on her head, a reward for information on her whereabouts. But it was so easy to blend into the crowd of the galaxy when she was a young human woman, and a pregnant one at that. Nobody looked twice at her.</p><p>She slipped into clinics when she could, when there were still free ones operating in a system. She wasn’t exactly living a relaxing, easy life, and she was afraid something might happen to her child – children, she discovered about a month into her exile. Twins. With that development, Anakin almost went to Naboo, to Padme, but even he wouldn’t be able to protect her there. Safety was paramount.</p><p>She managed to keep it up for five whole months. Constantly on the move, never staying in one place for more than a week or two. Making no friends, forging no connections, ducking out at the first sign of a warship, Republic or Separatist.</p><p>They found her eventually, a chance encounter with Jesse in a crowded market led to a small back room in a barely reputable tavern with Rex and Kix in tow. Anakin wanted to run, but her body wouldn’t let her. Sharp pains ripped across her belly, contractions, and of course, Kix noticed.</p><p>He knew. He had put the pieces together so long ago. Of course he had.</p><p>“General, please," Kix's voice had that hard edge of a medic who wasn’t actually making a request, he was ordering. "I cannot in good conscience let you go alone. You have to come up to the ship."</p><p>"They're just practice contractions," Anakin insisted. "They'll pass."</p><p>She gasped sharply as another pain gripped her, biting her tongue to keep any sound from escaping.</p><p>"They're getting worse." Kix observed.</p><p>Anakin shook her head feebly. "It can't be time. It's too early. It's too soon." She was supposed to have another month to go.</p><p>"If something is wrong, wouldn't you rather be in a fully equipped medical bay?"</p><p>That convinced her. She didn’t know this city. She didn’t know where she could go, where she would be safe. On the ship… it wouldn’t be ideal, but it was her only option.</p><p>They were able to get her onto one of the shuttles, three clones and one laboring Jedi. It took a little stealth and Rex throwing his command-weight around, but they got onboard without drawing notice.</p><p>"General, we can't keep you hidden on board," Rex stated.</p><p>"I know." Anakin laughed uneasily. "I guess I'm done hiding, huh?"</p><p>"Is there someone you want us to call?"</p><p>Anakin considered that for a moment. No way Padme could get here in time, nor would he probably be allowed. It was a long shot, who knew where he was, but, "Obi-Wan?"</p><p>Rex nodded firmly. "Right, I'll put out the call."</p><p>As soon as they landed in the hanger bay of the star destroyer, they quickly moved to the med bay. They didn't go unnoticed, several clones stopped in surprise when they saw General Skywalker being led through the halls. Fortunately none of them were stupid enough to actually stop them.</p><p>Once Anakin was safely delivered to med bay with Kix, the other clones peeled off to their next task. Rex and Jesse went to the bridge to inform the CO.</p><p>"General, Admiral" Rex announced sharply, forcing himself to act as normally as possible. "We have a situation."</p><p>X</p><p>Star destroyer medical bays weren't exactly equipped as labor and delivery wards, and most of the living staff was not even close to trained. Fortunately, the droids had the necessary information tucked into their memory banks, and in an emergency, the surgical pods could perform a cesarean.</p><p>Kix, even though he had looked up the files and committed the important things to memory some months ago, was hovering over a computer console, reading the files again. "I think we have a while to wait, General." A new message popped up, on the screen as the med droid uploaded its most recent scan data. She was hardly dilated.</p><p>"Joy." Anakin said dryly.</p><p>They had, at least, been able to move into one of the private medical rooms. Most of med bay was an open ward, but there were rooms set aside for cases that needed to be quarantined, or more intense recoveries and surgeries. In a pinch, they also made delivery rooms.</p><p>Both of their eyes went up to a screen above the surgical berth, the fetal heart monitor display.</p><p>"They're so fast," Anakin breathed, placing a hand over her children.</p><p>"It's normal," Kix assured her. "They're both strong and healthy."</p><p>Anakin turned to the door, muttering, "We've got company," a few seconds before there was the rap of armored knuckles on the door. Anakin gestured at the door controls to let them in.</p><p>Rex and Jesse stepped in, accompanied by two others.</p><p>"Admiral," Anakin nodded to Yularen, grateful to see another familial face.</p><p>“Skywalker,” he said back curtly.</p><p>She turned to the other man, "General."</p><p>Her replacement wasn't another Jedi, but a Republic military man. He was somewhere in his fifties, a man who had made a career from military service. He looked austere, and he frowned down at her, though it wasn't entirely unsympathetic.</p><p>"Anakin Skywalker, I am General Lyste." He didn't approach or try to shake her hand, he simply offered her a nod.</p><p>Anakin returned the nod. "I hear you've been taking good care of my boys while I've been gone."</p><p>"They are good soldiers. Loyal." His last word was pointed. "I must admit, I'm surprised to have met you at all."</p><p>Anakin half shrugged. "If I had my way, we wouldn't be meeting."</p><p>"No. I imagine we wouldn't." His eyes softened. "General Kenobi has been summoned; we have thus far kept your name off any communications."</p><p>Anakin felt a rush of gratitude, and looked to Yularen, that was probably his doing, though she had a sense Lyste hadn't protested too much. Their motives were unclear, but for the time being she was happy she wouldn't have to worry about the Jedi Council descending upon her so soon.</p><p>"Thank you."</p><p>Yularen frowned, regretful. "You understand we have to keep you in Republic custody, and deliver you to Coruscant."</p><p>"Yes, I do."</p><p>"I trust for the time being, you won't pose a serious enough flight risk that we have to keep you in the brig."</p><p>Anakin almost laughed. "No, I don't think I'll be going anywhere any time soon."</p><p>Lyste nodded sharply. "We will rendezvous with General Kenobi and then return to Coruscant. Until then," he trailed off, the unspoken warnings of caution unnecessary. No sense in telling her to stay put, she was in labor.</p><p>She wasn't going anywhere, even if she wanted to. Kix and the other clones probably wouldn't let her get far. He didn't really need to assure her that she would be safe and taken care of either. Again, her loyal clones would probably mutiny if he tried harming or imprisoning her. Not that he would. Her reason for desertion was quite obvious. He doubted she would have been left to roam freely on this backwater planet if she had defected to the Separatists.</p><p>"Good luck," Lyste settled on. "We'll check in on occasion. Otherwise, don't hesitate to ask if you need something."</p><p>"Thank you." Anakin's voice was gracious if strained.</p><p>x</p><p>It took approximately five seconds for the news that General Skywalker was back on the ship and about to have a baby to make its way amongst the clones. They had to put a limit on how many clones could be in med bay at a time. Anakin was delighted to see them again. But the officers had to put their collective feet down when duty posts ended up being abandoned. It took another five seconds for a betting pool to start up. Something Anakin found greatly entertaining when word reached her. She forbade the clones in the know from leaking any information. Something fun might as well come out of this.</p><p>Anakin of course, took notice of the missing clones, the men who had died after she left. The 501st had been in several long and bloody battles over the last five months. But there was one surprise, brought to see her by Rex himself.</p><p>Echo, back from the dead.</p><p>He had clearly been through hell and back since his supposed death, and was still in recovery. They exchanged stories, Anakin explaining a bit about where she had gone, and Echo and Rex recounting their run in with the Bad Batch, and rescuing Echo from the Separatists.</p><p>Anakin's first day back on the ship was more pleasant than she expected. Her pain thus far was manageable, the twins were still healthy, and boredom hadn't really set in yet. She even managed to sleep mostly through the ship's night cycle. Things didn't get bad until morning.</p><p>"Obi-Wan's going to miss all the excitement if he doesn't show up soon," Anakin hissed, pacing through another contraction. They had gotten considerably worse, and she had a feeling the twins would be making their arrival within the next few hours.</p><p>"Mandalore isn't exactly close," Rex reminded her, "He had to finish some business there first."</p><p>Anakin laughed wryly. "Probably a good thing you kept my name off the comm. You know he would have come running the instant he heard my name dropped otherwise."</p><p>"Him and probably half the Jedi in this sector."</p><p>"Well, I'm not complaining much about that. Just wish he'd hurry up."</p><p>"He'll be here soon, General."</p><p>X</p><p>Rex waited impatiently with Jesse to intercept Obi-Wan in the hangar bay.</p><p>"So... how do we break the news to him?" Jesse ventured.</p><p>"We should probably be pretty straight with him. General Skywalker isn't going to hang on forever, and I think they have a lot to talk about before things get too dicey."</p><p>"Smart choice." Jesse nodded quickly.</p><p>The star fighter landed nearby, and the cockpit opened. One person jumped out and hurried over to the Rex and Jesse.</p><p>"Okay, what is the big emergency?" Obi-Wan demanded, looking harried and tired. He expected whatever cryptic emergency Admiral Yularen has summoned him for was pretty damn important.</p><p>Rex wasted no time. "We found General Skywalker. She's on board the ship, in med bay."</p><p>"Anakin's hurt?" He reached out in the Force for Anakin. It had been so long since he'd been able to feel her along their bond. She was there! But the Force churned around her uneasily, ferrying pain and discomfort and fear. He set off quickly to find Anakin.</p><p>"Uh, in a sense, yes." Rex and Jesse hurried to catch up to his long strides. "She's in labor."</p><p>Obi-Wan stopped like he'd been frozen in carbonite. "Say that again."</p><p>"She's in labor. Probably gonna give birth soon."</p><p>His first thought was this was an elaborate prank. A joke. Anakin was here, yes, but in labor? She was pregnant?? This had to be her idea of a very poor joke. Even if he knew this wasn't something Anakin would joke about.  He opened his mouth to refute Rex's claim, but then the Force stirred. It carried a pained cry.</p><p>Obi-Wan took off running.</p><p>He sprinted into med bay with Rex and Jesse hot on his heels. Kix was waiting for them and took them right into Anakin's room.</p><p>She was standing at the foot of her bed, hands gripping the metal edge tightly, she was bowed over, breathing deeply. Her belly was very round.</p><p>"Anakin!"</p><p>She held up a finger, asking for a moment. Her pain passed, and she breathed much easier. Obi-Wan hurried to her side.</p><p>"You made it!" She wrapped him in a tight hug. "Thank the Force, I didn't think you would make it."</p><p>Obi-Wan hugged her, his mind still scrambling to catch up. "Explain everything."</p><p>Anakin laughed. "That's a bit of a long story. I'll give you the short version."</p><p>She eased herself back onto the bed first. "Twins are coming sometime soon. Padme's the father. No, I never told him."</p><p>“W-why did you run?”</p><p>“I was afraid.”</p><p>X</p><p>The end was nigh. Anakin's children would be born any minute now.</p><p>Med bay was packed with clones, all staring anxiously at the closed doors. Skywalker had kicked almost everyone out once the twins were actively on their way. It was just her, one medical droid, General Kenobi, and Kix.</p><p>Rex paced anxiously in front of the door, ears straining to catch the slightest change in sound. It was a vain effort, no sound made it through the thick metal door.</p><p>Something had to have gone wrong, Rex worried. It had been way too long.</p><p>The intercom on the door crackled to life. Kix's voice came through, "Rex, Jesse, come on in."</p><p>Rex couldn't think of many times when he moved faster than when he rushed into the room.</p><p>General Skywalker was laid up in bed, looking exhausted but happy. Cradled in her arms were two impossibly small, blanket-swaddled bundles.</p><p>"Would you like to meet my son and daughter?" She asked quietly.</p><p>Kix lifted one of the babies and placed them into Jesse's arms, showing him how to position his hands to hold the baby securely.</p><p>Then a baby was placed into Rex's arms. They hardly weighed anything. They were so tiny. The baby opened their eyes, and looked blankly up at him.</p><p>"Hi," Rex breathed, smiling at the baby. “Hello, little one.”</p><p>Something settled in his heart, a warm blooming of love. He knew in that instant, that there was nothing he wouldn't do to protect this baby. He would give his very life for them. They were so small. So fragile.</p><p>"You said it was early," he remembered, "Are they?"</p><p>"Perfectly healthy," Kix assured quickly. "A little small and underweight, but they'll catch up quickly."</p><p>From the bed came a derisive scoff. "Easy for you to say. They sure as hell didn't feel all that small coming out."</p><p>"Congratulations General." Jesse said, only just taking his eyes off the baby in his arms. "How are you doing?"</p><p>"Been better. Wouldn't recommend it." Despite her grumbling, she smiled. "Worth it, I guess."</p><p>"Should we tell the others?"</p><p>Anakin nodded, sinking into the bed. "Go ahead, don't take them too far though."</p><p>"We'll be just outside the door."</p><p>Anakin closed her eyes but said, "Tell me who wins the betting pool."</p><p>Kix led the way out the door. As soon as it opened, the hum of chatter disappeared.</p><p>"Brothers," he announced with a wide smile, "we have a boy," there was a round of cheers from the troopers who had placed a wager on a baby boy, "and we have a girl!"</p><p>Rex and Jesse stepped fully into the room, holding the twins for all to see.</p><p>There was a beat of silence as the news sunk in, then an uproar of cheers. More than a few brothers could be seen nudging his neighbor, mentioning with much chagrin that they hadn't even considered twins.</p><p>Kix looked over to Echo, who had taken charge of the bets. "Who wins Echo?"</p><p>His brother's grin was wide and shit-eating. "Looks like I do."</p><p>There was a rush forward as the clones all tried to get a closer look at the babies. The sudden press of bodies, the noise and closeness must have startled the one in Jesse's arms, as with a little cough and sputter they began crying. A moment later, the other twin joined in.</p><p>"Oh, you scared 'em." The clone closest to Rex elbowed his neighbor.</p><p>Rex felt a pull on his back, like someone had grabbed him by the shoulder.</p><p>"Time's up. You made my kids cry," Skywalker called out, not truly irritated, but clearly unwilling to let her children cry.</p><p>Fortunately, both children quieted back in Anakin's arms. At least short term.</p><p>"They're hungry," she said after a moment. "And tired. It's been a long day."</p><p>Hint taken.</p><p>“We’ll leave you to rest, General.”</p><p>X</p><p>There was hardly a moment in the first day of their lives that the twins weren’t held by someone who adored them. In time, almost everyone on the ship had come to see the babies.</p><p>Anakin didn’t have names for them. She wanted to wait for Padme to meet his children before they were named. It wouldn’t be much longer now. They were on the way back to Coruscant. Another day and their father could meet them, know about their existence.</p><p>Even brand new, there was something unmistakable about them.</p><p>"You can sense them, can't you?" Anakin said aloud still staring at the baby in her arms.</p><p>"No doubting they're your children," Obi-Wan joked, gently rocking side to side to soothe the baby in his arms. "The Force is so strong with them."</p><p>Kix laughed as he coaxed a smile from Anakin’s baby. "Cutest little Jedi I've ever seen."</p><p>Anakin, despite her exhaustion and her body’s desperate need to recover, didn’t want to sleep. She hated thinking she might miss a single moment of her children’s lives. Every moment filled her with wonder. The way their little fingers wrapped around hers. The way they knew her voice. Sleepy, reflexive smiles when they felt safe and content. Even their tiny, star-bright presences in the Force.</p><p>They were perfect and they were hers.</p><p>X</p><p>The Force prodded Anakin awake, stirring a sense of deep unease in her. She shot upright instantly checking the twins. They slept soundly in the little makeshift bassinet at her bedside.</p><p>"What's wrong?" Obi-Wan's voice was hushed to avoid waking the twins.</p><p>"Something's wrong. Something's coming." Anakin called her lightsaber to her hand.</p><p>"I don't sense any-"</p><p>The door slid open, interrupting Obi-Wan. Kix stepped in. Anakin shuddered, her heart pounding. Why did he scare her so suddenly? He had a tray of hypos in his hand.</p><p>He looked quizzically at the weapon in Anakin's hands. "Everything all right, sirs? The fabricator finished formulating the vaccines for the twins."</p><p>He set the tray down to prepare.</p><p>For whatever reason, Anakin knew she couldn't let Kix use those hypos on the babies.  "Can't it wait, Kix? They just fell asleep."</p><p>"It'll be quick and painless, General. They won't even feel it."</p><p>The fact that he hadn't lied was even more concerning. Hypos stung a little, the babies would take notice and feel the pain.</p><p>Anakin seized the tray with the Force and threw it away from Kix. Obi-Wan called out in surprise, laying a hand on her shoulder. The babies startled awake from the loud clatter.</p><p>Kix, thwarted from his quick and painless option, pulled his blaster, aiming at the bassinet.</p><p>Anakin moved in a flash, igniting her saber, deflecting the blaster shot, and removing Kix's head in one smooth motion.</p><p>Her legs went weak and she stumbled back onto the bed. Her hand flew to the bassinet to check the twins. They were unharmed, but very upset.</p><p>"What the hell," Obi-Wan breathed. "Why would he do that?"</p><p>Something shifted in the Force, seismic, rocking like a bomb blast. It hurt. Anakin's hand flew to her chest, and Obi-Wan made the same motion. He'd felt it too. So many lives, so many Jedi had just been violently ripped out of the Force.</p><p>"What's happening?" Obi-Wan asked weakly.</p><p>Anakin sensed a mass of clones moving towards them with intent to kill. She pushed herself to her feet. "We have to move."</p><p>"We're protected here."</p><p>"We're cornered." Anakin grabbed the bedsheet and tore it into thick, long strips. "Clones are coming to kill me and you and the twins. And I don't think they'll stop until we're dead or they are."</p><p>She tied a strip of the sheet across her chest and fashioned it into a sling. She settled one baby into the sling, then she made another sling and settled the other baby in, using the last strip, to tie them secure against her chest.</p><p>The babies had not stopped crying, and there was nothing Anakin could do to calm them at the moment.</p><p>"Stealth is out of the option," Obi-Wan observed, helping tie the last knot behind Anakin's back. "We'll have to be fast."</p><p>"Do we run, or do we find a more defensible position?"</p><p>They paused, considering the next steps. An escape pod would be too easily picked off by gunners. If they ran, they'd need a hyperspace capable ship, and there weren't many in the hangars. They'd also be easy and obvious targets for the clones to disable to ensure the Jedi were trapped. Almost any defensible position on the ship could also turn into a trap. It was too easy to get cornered and boxed in. And with the twins wailing, there was no chance for sneaking around.</p><p>Odds of survival were low, either way, but they had slightly better odds escaping on a ship.</p><p>"Let's try for the hangar."</p><p>Obi-Wan nodded grimly, his eyes lingering on the twins. "We should split up. I can create a distraction."</p><p>"No! I'm barely staying in my feet. I'm hardly in fighting shape. I need you." Anakin didn't need to say how she wouldn't be able to stand not knowing whether Obi-Wan was alive or dead until it was too late.</p><p>Obi-Wan nodded. "Stay behind me."</p><p>They met resistance almost as soon as they stepped into med bay. Clones were waiting, blasters at the ready, shooting to kill.</p><p>It broke Anakin's heart to redirect the blaster bolts back at her own men. Men, who just a day ago were celebrating her, congratulating her, vowing to protect her <em>ik’ade</em> with their lives. Something was wrong with them. Something deep inside had changed. She could feel it. They weren't her men anymore; it was like they had been wiped clean, or their minds taken over.</p><p>It was a nonstop fight. Every clone onboard had turned their full attention to hunting the Jedi. Obi-Wan was doing his best to deflect the blaster bolts, as was Anakin. But she was out of shape, weak, unbalanced with the twins on her chest.</p><p>She kept one arm crossed over them, even if it was ineffective protection. It was an impossible battle. Two Jedi, even the best damn Jedi in the galaxy, were no match for an entire battalion of clones. Especially not with two newborns to protect. By sheer numbers, they would be trapped, cornered, overwhelmed and gunned down.</p><p>They went deep into the ship's corridors, trying to lose some clones in the labyrinth, but it was pointless. The twins never stopped crying and they could be heard from anywhere.</p><p>"Damnit!" Anakin gasped as they skidded to a stop in a junction. Clones were coming at them from every direction, they were surrounded.</p><p>Obi-Wan's back pressed against hers, she could feel him breathing heavily, she could feel his heart pounding, and the way his soul cried out in pain.</p><p>"Why is this happening?" Anakin gasped, looking everywhere for an escape route. "I don't see a way out."</p><p>Obi-Wan reached back with his free hand, still deflecting the relentless rain of blaster shots, he gripped Anakin's saberless arm. In that touch, he conveyed so much, sorrow, apology, forgiveness and penance, and how happy he had been to see Anakin again, even for such a short time, and what an incredible privilege it was to meet her children. He was saying goodbye.</p><p>Before Anakin had a chance to say anything, the blast doors all around their junction slammed shut, blocking them off from the clones. Back the way they had come, the blast door farther down the corridor had shut, leaving them an open escape route.</p><p>Someone was watching out for them.</p><p>Too thrilled with the prospect of escape, they ran for the newly opened path. Better to risk falling into a trap than to stay put and be gunned down.</p><p>As they ran, blast doors closed and directed them through clone-free halls. They were being shepherded somewhere, but got closer to the hangar bay every second. At every closed blast door, they could hear clones on the other side, rigging up explosives to blast open the doors. But that took time, and it gave the Jedi enough of a lead on them.</p><p>Then they came to a dead end, nowhere to run.</p><p>A side door opened and a voice called, "In here, quick!"</p><p>They obeyed without thinking.</p><p>The door closed behind them, locking them into a small storage room with General Lyste and Admiral Yularen.</p><p>"What the hell is going on?" Anakin demanded.</p><p>"I'm not sure," Yularen said grimly. "We received a communication and all of a sudden every clone on bridge left without explanation."</p><p>"They're trying to kill us," Obi-Wan explained. "And the babies."</p><p>"We've noticed," Lyste said dryly. “I've recruited the ship's droids to mislead the clones, but that won't last long. Echo is the only clone who hasn’t been affected by whatever got the rest of them. He’s eyes in the sky."</p><p>"You need to get off the ship." Yularen observed.</p><p>"That was the plan. But we also need to not be blasted from the sky."</p><p>“We’ll do what we can to keep clones off your trail, and get you clear airspace as soon as you get to a ship.”</p><p>“We’ve aborted the hyperspace jump. We’re not going anywhere anytime soon.”</p><p>“Good. With your help, we might get out alive. Anakin?” Obi-Wan turned to her. She had been silent the entire time, just trying to comfort her wailing children. Obi-Wan could feel her teetering on the brink of terrible despair, desperation. She hadn’t caught her breath; her arms were trembling around the babies. He reached out to her.</p><p>“Let me take one of them, Anakin.”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“It’ll be easier to carry them. Easier to protect them.”</p><p>She breathed in an almost-sob. “Okay.”</p><p>They took a moment to arrange the crying newborn into a secure sling against Obi-Wan’s chest. There wasn’t time to lose, clones would figure out where they were hiding soon enough.</p><p>“We’ll give you every chance we can for you to escape.” Yularen looked uneasy. “There won’t be anything we can do for you once you reach the hangar.”</p><p>“We know.” Obi-Wan said grimly.</p><p>“May the Force be with you.” Yularen said then he and Lyste ducked from the room.</p><p>Echo provided them the clearest possible path to the hangar, and even then, there were still so many clones in their path. Something wasn’t right about this entire situation, more than the obvious, but Anakin didn’t have time to dwell on it. They had entered the hangar, there were transports, they could make it out!</p><p>But there were also clones, hundreds of them converging on them with one order: kill the Jedi.</p><p>It finally clicked for Anakin as blaster fire rained down upon them. She wasn’t being aimed at. It wasn’t that the clones were missing, they were deliberately <em>not</em> aiming for her. The blaster bolts she deflected were meant for Obi-Wan, not her. Why?</p><p>The Force rang out in warning, but too late to do anything about it. Anakin turned just in time to see the blaster bolt hit Obi-Wan in the back. She saw every detail as if in slow motion. The arch of his back, the look of shock and surprise on his face, the reflexive curl of his arm around the baby held against his chest. Anakin saw the clone that had fired the shot. He held a high powered sniper rifle, meant to take out targets hundreds of meters away, not tens. The high powered shot went through the middle of Obi-Wan's back and straight out his chest. Right into the baby.</p><p>Anakin screamed. She reached out to catch them, but they were too heavy. She fell to the hangar floor with them, pulling Obi-Wan into her lap.</p><p>He was still alive, but barely, and fading fast. He reached to her in the Force, his hands couldn't coordinate the simple movement. She felt him in his final moments. He was sorry. Sorry to have failed her. Sorry he couldn't protect her child. Then he was gone.</p><p>The firing stopped. The hangar was almost silent save for the screaming of Anakin's remaining child, her own cries, and the pounding beat of many feet.</p><p>"Get the child!"</p><p>They tackled Anakin; dogpiled on her, pinning her arms and legs and pulling her lightsaber from her hand. She fought, kicked, bit, and screamed, calling upon the Force with all her strength. But even she couldn't stop them.</p><p>The baby was ripped from her arms.</p><p>"Rex no!" Anakin pulled and struggled, but she was held fast. "Not my baby! Please!"</p><p>He was merciless. He held the baby out, not even blinking at how they wailed, and without a moment of thought or hesitation, silenced them permanently.</p><p>Anakin was released. She crawled to her child, gathered the baby in her arms.</p><p>"Order 66 has been carried out," a clone behind her said tonelessly. She couldn't tell who was speaking. They all sounded the same now. "Jedi threat has been neutralized."</p><p>Jedi threat? What threat were her children? What threat was Obi-Wan? And why had they gone out of their way to NOT eliminate her?</p><p>She crawled to where Obi-Wan lay with the other baby. With shaking arms, she pulled her child from the sling.</p><p>Her son. Her daughter. Dead before even being named. Only a day old. She didn't want to move. Couldn't leave them. She would stay here by their side until time and neglect took her too.</p><p>She adjusted her hold on her children. They were so small, small enough to be held in one arm. She took Obi-Wan's hand. It was already getting cold.</p><p>Her fingers brushed against something solid, something even colder. His lightsaber.</p><p>Anakin wrapped her fingers tightly around the hilt. A new thought filled her head. Vengeance and rage filled her heart. Anakin lifted her gaze. Clones were leaving the hangar, ignoring her, returning to their posts. Their minds were free of any concern about her.</p><p>She laid her children across Obi-Wans chest and folded his arms over them.</p><p>Anakin pushed herself to her feet, igniting Obi-Wan's lightsaber.</p><p>Not killing her was going to be the biggest mistake anyone ever made.</p><p>X</p><p>The <em>Tantive IV</em> emerged from hyperspace and edged slowly to the star destroyer that was emitting the distress beacon. On the bridge, Mace Windu, Yoda, Bail Organa, and Padme Amidala surveyed the drifting battleship.</p><p>"Scan for life signs," Organa commanded his captain.</p><p>The scan only took a moment. "Just one life sign, sir. In the hangar."</p><p>"Take us in." Organa turned to the Jedi. "A survivor?"</p><p>Windu closed his eyes, "Yes."</p><p>Master Yoda sighed heavily. "Much pain I sense, much suffering."</p><p>"Do you know who it is?" Padme asked quietly.</p><p>Windu considered the Senator for a moment, "I have an idea."</p><p>The corvette docked with the star destroyer, and the Jedi and senators crossed through the airlock.</p><p>It was a bloodbath. There were fallen clones everywhere. There was no way one Jedi had been able to take out this many clones during Order 66. Even Yoda and Mace Windu had to run, not go on the offensive to escape with their lives. But every clone had the distinctive charred cut of a lightsaber.</p><p>The bodies grew thicker as they got closer to the hangar. They stopped before stepping fully in.</p><p>"Be careful," Windu warned. "We don't know how she'll react."</p><p>There was a wide, clear space in the hangar, the epicenter of a shockwave that had thrown clone bodies and ships far away. Left in the center, was a large, dark shape. The survivor, presumably, but they didn't look quite right. Maybe they were non-human, their legs stuck out at an odd angle from their torso. Though, Padme thought they looked plenty human in every other regard.</p><p>"We're here to help," Windu announced as they approached slowly.</p><p>The figure lifted their head. It suddenly became clear that the surviving Jedi was holding a dead body in her lap</p><p>Padme's heart stuttered. He recognize them both. Anakin and Obi-Wan!</p><p>With a strangled cry, Padme sprinted for his wife. He was on his knees her side, reaching out to pull her into a hug when he noticed one final thing... or two.</p><p>Impossibly tiny bundles, wrapped up in stained, white blankets. Anakin was cradling them protectively to her chest.</p><p>He saw tiny noses, and small hands.</p><p>"Ani?"</p><p>She leaned heavily against him, breaking fully into wracking sobs. "Why? Why wasn't it me?"</p><p>X</p><p>They went to a tiny nearby moon to collect the escape pod survivors. It was inhabited, but barely; a small agricultural colony with one little shanty town housing the laborers and the remainder of the moon left to fields or wild lands.</p><p>The farmers were wary of the Jedi, the military men, and the clone. Even they had heard the Emperor’s proclamation. They were not so heartless to turn away grieving parents or refugees. They helped build a pyre.</p><p>In the end, Anakin and Padme agreed on names for the children, but didn’t share them. Nobody pressed for them.</p><p>Anakin held tight to her husband and mourned.</p><p>X</p><p>It was the control chips, they discovered. The chips that had gotten Fives killed for discovering the truth. An Executive Order could only be issued by one being in the entire galaxy.</p><p>The how didn’t matter much in the aftermath, nor did the why. But the who… Anakin knew who was responsible for the death of her children. For Obi-Wan’s death, the death of her clones, the death of all the Jedi, and every casualty across the war.</p><p>She knew who had selected her to survive this genocide.</p><p>In retrospect, it was all so obvious.</p><p>X</p><p>"I'm going to kill the Emperor. I will make him pay for the lives he took." Anakin kept her head bowed, staring at the saber hilts in her hands. Her declaration hung heavily in the air.</p><p>"Revenge is not the Jedi way," Mace Windu cautioned.</p><p>"Take this path, and a return as a Jedi, you will not," Yoda added.</p><p>"I left the Order. I haven't been a Jedi for some time." Anakin drew a deep breath and released it through her nose. "Someone has to do it." She lifted her head, her face was set, impassive, but her eyes were full of icy fire. “He chose me for a reason.”</p><p>X</p><p>Anakin threw herself fully into training, preparing to take on Palpatine. She had to regain her fighting shape. She had to learn to protect herself from him.</p><p>"Your fear he will use against you. Your pain and suffering he will weaponized," Yoda coached.</p><p>"I am not afraid. I do not fear the Dark Side. And he cannot hurt me more than he already has."</p><p>Yoda did not argue; he could sense Anakin within the Force. The storm of feeling and emotion she had been her whole life was gone. There was no more anger, fear, or rage, nor was there love, joy, compassion. She was empty, condensed and pure like a flawless diamond. She was determination. A single goal, a single purpose. He feared what she would become when her mission was completed.</p><p>"May the Force be with you."</p><p>X</p><p>"This is a suicide mission," Bail Organa protested as Padme made preparations.</p><p>"Yes." Padme didn't look up from the delicate wiring he was soldering the final touches on.</p><p>"Where did you even learn to do that?"</p><p>He smiled behind his soldering mask. "My wife isn't the only one with unconventional training."</p><p>"Padme..." Bail could find no further words of protest. They had both witnessed what had become of the galaxy. The early days of the Empire spelled out the future of the galaxy. What Padme and Anakin were doing had to be done. Not just for their lost children, for the whole galaxy. They were dedicated to their sacrifice. For the Republic. For the Jedi. For their twins.</p><p>"Good luck, my friend."</p><p>X</p><p>Anakin and Padme practically waltzed into Palpatine's lap. He had been expecting them, of course he had. Anakin had been his hand-picked contingency. He had chosen her specifically to survive the fall of the Jedi Order, to become his apprentice, his enforcer, his slave. He welcomed her back with open arms.</p><p>Well, somewhat open arms. Security in his new palace was still rather lax. But there were guards lurking in the dark corners, waiting for orders to kill.</p><p>His lips curled into a smile, he beckoned her closer with a warm voice. Anakin shuddered and stood her ground. How had she never noticed the poisoned honey before? His smile fell at her disobedience.</p><p>"If you have not come to join me, then you've come to your death."</p><p>"That's the idea." Anakin drew her lightsabers, but left them unlit.</p><p>Padme showed his hand. The slowly encroaching guards and clones froze.</p><p>"My husband here has enough explosives strapped to him to level this entire sector. He has a hardwired dead man's switch. And I have a remote detonator."</p><p>"You wouldn't destroy your precious Temple."</p><p>"I'd pull the trigger now if it guaranteed you could not defile it further." She heard the quiet click as Padme put his thumb down on the trigger. "But I imagine a little explosion would only inconvenience the two of us."</p><p>"You are making grave mistake, young Skywalker." His voice growled unnaturally through the Force, magnified, multiplied, an echo of all the Sith who came before him.</p><p>"It wouldn't be the first time." She raised her chin, looking down at him despite his position on a newly installed throne in a place where there never should have been one.</p><p>His face remained almost as impassive as hers, but she could feel him writhing with displeasure in the Force. He was a black hole of darkness, threatening to draw anything and everything into his depths and twist and destroy it forever. The more he consumed, the more powerful he became. She felt him reach out to her, sticky tendrils diving into her being looking for the woman she had once been, looking for Anakin Skywalker. But Anakin Skywalker, as she had been, was dead, and he had been the one to kill her. She had given herself into the Force, let it envelop her, draw her into its protective shell.</p><p><em>There is no emotion, there is the Force</em>.</p><p>She was her destiny, her birth rite. She was the Force made incarnate. She could not be destroyed. She could not be corrupted, swayed, or seduced by the Dark Side. She was the Force's revenge upon those that fouled it, corrupted it, ripped it open into great bleeding wounds of hatred and death.</p><p>He realized this, and recoiled.</p><p>Her hand shown, Anakin dropped pretenses. She let the Force flow through her. She shed her humanity and became the Force. She seized the Sith Lord and commanded. "Explain."</p><p>He struggled against her hold, wriggling and chipping away. She would allow him to escape in time, but first she needed his confession. She had yet to physically lay a hand upon him. She had hardly moved. To the observers, he would be gleefully laying out his master plan, riding high on the thrill of triumph.</p><p>And gloat he did; all his true thoughts and feelings pouring out of him for the cameras and recorders to capture. He spelled out his long game. Laid bare his plans. His climb to ultimate power, his hatred of the Jedi, him conspiracy to destroy them all through the war, to turn them into the enemies, into traitors, to make the people hate and fear them, to cripple the galaxy with a brutal and expensive war, so that when he became Emperor, they would welcome him with open arms. Anything to stop the bloodshed and violence and poverty and starvation. Anything to give him absolute power.</p><p>
  <em>There is no ignorance, there is the Force.</em>
</p><p>Even those who believed the Empire was the best step to protect the people of the galaxy would see him for the greedy fraud he was. His plans were never meant to better anybody’s life or station but his own. He would betray and sacrifice everyone who revered him if it meant gaining a modicum of power.</p><p>With his confession finished, himself damned by his own words, Anakin let him break from her hold. She could kill him without lifting a finger, but there was a call for blood. She wanted to fight him. Revenge had now been wrought for the dead. Every visible detail of this confrontation was being streamed across the entirety of the holonet. Even if he did survive, he would never have his power, and he would never be able to fully eliminate the Jedi.</p><p>
  <em>There is no passion, there is the Force.</em>
</p><p>Now it was time for him to be utterly destroyed. This was her revenge.</p><p>First to rub salt into the wound. She gestured to Padme, and the recording equipment hidden within his bomb, and the unnoticed drones hovering in the eaves</p><p>"Take a bow for your adoring subjects, my Lord." Contempt dripped off every syllable. "It is time for you to leave the stage."</p><p>His face finally revealed his true nature. A crimson bladed lightsaber ignited in his hand, with a howl, he threw himself from the throne and at Anakin. She was ready for him, catching him with her own saber blades. They were evenly matched, trading blow for blow. Every strike had a parry. Every trick in the Force had a counter. Despite his initial shock at her being, his confidence grew.</p><p>She let it. Confidence led to mistakes. Eventually his physical body would tire. Hers would not. She was the Force, she was infinite.</p><p>Off the physical plane, a different battle occurred. Within the Force, Palpatine's darkness lashed against her, striking with power that would rip apart lesser beings. He washed against her, as ineffective as water against transparisteel. He did not see what he was doing; the effect was so gradual. Every strike against her, and her every strike back, dissipated him, his power, a little more into the Force. With every strike, every loss of power, she felt how he had earned it. A death here, a betrayal there, manipulation and lies. The power washed over her, through her, and released into the Force, out of his reach.</p><p>
  <em>There is no chaos, there is the Force.</em>
</p><p>He did not realize he was losing until he had already lost.</p><p>On the physical plane Anakin had him on the ropes, losing ground and defending against her ceaseless blows. In the Force, he was an insect trapped beneath her booth.</p><p>Their lightsabers clashed. “<em>Plead for your life</em>,” The Force commanded.</p><p>"You could have shared in my triumph!" Palpatine growled, refusing to show weakness. "You would have been my right hand; all would cower before your might."</p><p>Another crash, a deft motion, his lightsaber clattered off to the side in useless pieces. He tripped over the foot of his throne and fell to the floor. She leveled her blade at his heart.</p><p>
  <em>“Beg.”</em>
</p><p>"You could have riches, planets to call your own. People to rule. A fleet of starships." Desperation finally cracked his mask, and he begged, "I'll give you anything you want!"</p><p>She deactivated her lightsaber, grabbed him by the collar and hauled him to his trembling feet. His power was gone; he was no more than a feeble, evil old man.</p><p>She hissed in his ear, "I want my children back."</p><p>She let him see what he had stolen from her. She replayed the memory, the emotion, the exact moment he signed his death warrant. Understanding dawned, slow and horrified. He saw where he went wrong, where he miscalculated. He had gambled on her, and he had lost.</p><p>
  <em>There is no death, there is the Force.</em>
</p><p>A blaster bolt took him from the side, turning his brain into a charred mess within his skull. Padme’s revenge.</p><p>Within the Force, Anakin tightened her hold on the last remaining fragments of Sith Lord Palpatine. He would not be allowed to slink off to the dark corners of the galaxy and slowly gather his strength back. This piece of him, strong enough with the Dark Side to remain even after his death, could not be allowed to persist. The Force surrounded the little dark slug, encasing it, squeezing it, tearing it down to the basest elements of its being, and then like all the rest of his malice and power, neutralizing it and releasing it back into the Force.</p><p>The last of the Sith had been destroyed.</p><p>Anakin returned to herself. She looked to Padme, who was lowering his blaster from the side of Palpatine's skull. There were tears rolling down his cheeks. He holstered the blaster and took Anakin's hand with his free hand. The other still held down the bomb trigger.</p><p>Anakin's eyes scanned the perimeter if the room. Nobody moved to attack them.</p><p>Like sunlight breaking a thick fog, the dark miasma of Palpatine's influence was clearing from the air. The freed minds of his attendants swam with confusion. And she took note of those who weren't confused, who knew the truth all along, who were just as corrupt and evil as he was. They would be taken care of in time. And the clones, she still felt that empty static within their minds, the blank influence of their control chips and executive orders.</p><p>Any minute now, those chips would deactivate. Echo had Kamino well in hand. What happened to the clones after that, how they handled their actions in the wake of Order 66 was someone else’s problem to handle.</p><p>And the Empire… that was best left in the hand of the politicians. Anakin had no desire to rule. Neither did Padme. Bail Organa could fix that problem.</p><p>X</p><p>The Jedi reclaimed the Temple. It shrieked with tragedy sunk into the very stone. Too many deaths, the corruption of the Dark Side rocked the foundations. It was a monument to the Jedi’s greatest failure. They retrieved the most sacred artifacts, they secured the archives, they took the holocrons, and then they put Padme’s contingency plan to use.</p><p>The Jedi were not a stone temple. In truth they were not the reclaimed texts, data, and artifacts. They would persist without their trappings, but it helped to not have to start from scratch.</p><p>They found a new home on a nearly forgotten planet that sang with the living Force.</p><p>Anakin never really returned from her battle against Palpatine. Nobody really expected her to. She had given too much of herself to the Force.</p><p>She and Padme set it upon themselves to find the scattered Jedi. In a little ship of their own, they went where the Force called to them and they brought Jedi home.</p><p>They found an underwater fortress, planned and built years before it was ever needed. And in that fortress they found knights and padawans trapped in cages. And in the interrogation chamber, they found a Knight on the brink of breaking. The knight brought them to her padawan and a youngling that had escaped the sacking of the Temple. In a reclamation yard, she found a padawan in hiding. Under the care of a Kalleran smuggler, she found another padawan of Mace Windu’s lineage.</p><p>Like finding stars in a dark night sky, Anakin found the surviving Jedi and brought them home.</p><p>There were reports of a holocron containing a list of Force-sensitive younglings in the galaxy, hidden safely by a Master who forsaw the downfall of the Jedi. But that wasn’t Anakin’s quest to complete.</p><p>She had collected almost everyone when she was drawn back to that small agricultural moon. She went alone. Padme couldn't stand to set foot on that moon again. There, she found a young Togruta standing at a little monument. Anakin hadn’t asked the farmers to memorialize the fallen Jedi, but they had anyway.</p><p>It hurt physically to approach the polished stone and eternal flame placed upon the stone slab that had once been a funeral pyre.</p><p><em>For the victims of the Clone Wars.</em> Someone had inscribed. <em>The peacekeepers and the innocent.</em></p><p>Ahsoka turned to face them as they approached. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. She felt who had been given back to the Force here. The loss was tangible. She ran to Anakin’s arms, squeezing tight.</p><p>Anakin hugged her padawan and mourned again.</p><p>When their tears ran dry, and Anakin explained everything she could, she held her apprentice close and said, “It’s time I brought you home, Snips.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Yes, you are welcome to yell with me about this. 😭</p></blockquote></div></div>
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